LAHORE: Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf who had stoutly resisted the Big-Three formula at the ICC during his tenure, on Thursday expressed his delight that finally common sense had prevailed at the game’s governing body and the Indian cricket board (BCCI) was voted out on governance structure and revenue model in Wednesday’s ICC meeting at Dubai.
“Until my last days in the PCB office (in 2014) I stood my ground and opposed the Big-Three formula as it was against the basic rules of equality and justice. But, unfortunately, other cricketing countries except Sri Lanka at the time favoured the ridiculous formula and it was approved.
“And when I left the Board, Mr. Najam Sethi [as the new chairman] accepted it and then Sri Lanka too became ineffective with the BCCI succeeding to get support of all ten member countries to push the Big-Three formula through,” said Zaka.
“Much as we were only two members (Pakistan and Sri Lanka), we had adopted a principled stance at the ICC. Also, the independent world of cricket raised voices against the Big Three formula and praised Pakistan’s stand.
“Had Pakistan been able to stick to its earlier principled stance, it would now have earned a lot of respect among the member nations of the ICC,” commented the former PCB chief.
“But Mr Sethi changed our principled stand in return for signing of MoUs with the BCCI for the resumption of bilateral series between Pakistan and India which to this day remains unfulfilled as the BCCI hardly ever gave any respect to the MoUs after getting Pakistan’s support on the Big-Three formula at the ICC,” Zaka pointed out.
“We earned nothing for changing our stance in favour of India and are still considering whether to sue the BCCI for not implementing the MoUs,” he further said.
“Now I would like to ask Mr. Sethi, who always wants to get credit of all good work, to explain what Pakistan gained after signing MoUs with India,” said Zaka.